The Trolley Dodger

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Dodgers Public Relations
Friday, April 8, 2011
(323) 224-1301
AMR Communications
Deborah Hileman: (303) 495-1210

MEDIA ADVISORY

DODGERS AND AMERICAN MEDICAL RESPONSE TO HOST FUNDRAISER FOR BRYAN STOW ON MONDAY AT DODGER STADIUM

KCAL 9, Prime Ticket, KABC 790, Univision Radio and the Los Angeles Times join with the team to collect donations for the trust fund established for Giants fan Bryan Stow and his children

WHAT: The Dodgers, American Medical Response and the team’s media partners, KCAL 9, Prime Ticket, KABC 790 and Univision Radio, in addition to the Los Angeles Times, will hold a “drive-through” relief event at Dodger Stadium this Monday for Bryan Stow. All funds collected will be donated directly to the trust fund established by the Stow family to benefit Bryan and his children.

At approximately 12:00 p.m., several community supporters will be on hand to speak to the media. Details of those who will be attending will be announced in the coming days.

WHEN:
MONDAY, April 11
8:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m
12:00 p.m. – Community supporters available to the media

WHERE:
Dodger Stadium
Parking Lot 1

Media should enter the stadium through Gate A at Sunset and Elysian Park Ave. Parking Lot 1 is directly to the left of Gate A.

MISC:
Monetary donations of cash and checks will be accepted. Checks should be made out to the “Bryan Stow Fund.” In addition, those with a PayPal account may donate online with a credit card by logging in and selecting the “Send Money” option; Personal; Gift, with the recipient: stowdonations@gmail.com. The fund is also accepting donations online at www.sfpcu.org.

Media wishing to cover the event should contact the Dodgers’ PR department.

The Los Angeles Dodgers, pioneers in sport and world culture, have won more games, more pennants, and more World Series than any other club in the National League since moving to Los Angeles. Since the start of the modern era in baseball, the Dodgers of Brooklyn and Los Angeles, combined, have a cumulative attendance of more than 187 million, the highest total in the history of baseball or any other sport. Visit the Dodgers on the Internet at www.dodgers.com. For media information, visit www.dodgerspressbox.com.

It’s been a while since I subscribed to the paper version of the LA Times, but there are occasions that I miss it, particularly on Sunday mornings when there’s nothing like relaxing with a big newspaper.

That said, if I were planning on resubscribing, I would scrap those plans after the recent irresponsible character assassination of Dodger Marcus Thames by TJ Simers. If I had a subscription, I’d consider canceling it.

No responsible journalist acts that way. No responsible person acts that way. That the LA Times continues to allow this behavior under its banner means they either don’t care or are more concerned with pageviews than doing the right thing.

This is hardly the first time Simers has acted irresponsibly (probably not even the first time this week), but enough’s enough.

Simers and Bill Plaschke’s (whose “writing” exploits have often been chronicled on this blog) continued presence in a sports page that used to host the best in the business is just wrong. Akin to Vin Scully being replaced by Howard Stern. I don’t know Marcus Thames from Adam, but even if there were some “there” there, some story to tell, Simers’ approach should be grounds for being banned from the clubhouse.

See also “T.J. Simers’ Unnecessarily Cruel Hatchet Job on Marcus Thames” from The Big Lead.

Friend of Trolley Dodger, editor of the Daily Mirror blog at the LA Times, and all-around nice guy Larry Harnisch honored for heroism. Well done, Larry!

“D.A. honors three Good Samaritans for courageous acts”

Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley honored two Good Samaritans on Wednesday for intervening during a 2007 assault on a woman in front of the Pasadena police station and a young boy for assisting authorities in a separate gang murder case.

Quoleshna Elbert, 31, and Larry Harnisch, 58, a Los Angeles Times copy editor, were given Courageous Citizen Awards during a ceremony at the Pasadena Hilton. The award honors those who act at “considerable personal risk to help a victim, capture a suspect or who have testified in court.” [...]

Elbert was on her way to church when she saw a woman being beaten by her ex-husband as her children looked on from the father’s car. She tried to stop the attack by hitting him with her purse and a Bible.

Harnisch was driving to church when he saw the attack, stopped his car and intervened, putting himself between the attacker and the victim, who had been beaten unconscious. The woman survived but suffered permanent injuries.

The actions of the pair — and their court testimony — helped prosecutors convict the man of attempted voluntary manslaughter, aggravated mayhem and torture. He was sentenced to six years to life in prison.

Until 1955, the Brooklyn Dodgers had gone through a long series of near-misses at World Series glory, coming close but not close enough. It became a running theme and spawned a team slogan: “Wait ’til next year!” Next year finally did show up, but it was a long wait.

The Yankees were the Dodgers’ perennial opponents when they made it to the series back then, so the Bombers losing it in 1955 to the Bums made it even sweeter. Putting it in video-game terms for the younger set, they were the final boss that it took forever to beat. This was one of the reasons I was hoping for a Yankee-Dodger World Series this year.

Apart from the wrenching disappointment the past week, and a few issues here and there, the 2009 season has been more of a joy to follow than not. On a personal level, having the opportunity to attend the Bluetopia premiere, the annual Dodger Blogger Night (the night before the Manny revelation), and particularly getting to cover the game as a member of the press are memories I’ll never lose.

Thanks to the Dodgers organization and team for a great year and for continuing to reach out to the online fan community. Thanks to my fellow Dodger bloggers for lots of entertaining and thoughtful commentary this season — especial thanks and kudos to Jon Weisman of Dodger Thoughts, the sundry Sons of Steve Garvey, the intrepid lads of True Blue LA, the aptly named Blue Heaven, Ken Steinhorn of isportsweb, and Larry and Keith over at the always-fascinating Daily Mirror.

Congratulations to the Phillies on the NL Pennant, and while I don’t see myself exactly cheering you on the next few weeks, please destroy the Yankees if you get the opportunity. Pretty please? ;)

Finally, thanks to everybody for reading Trolley Dodger in 2009. The site’s third anniversary is coming up next week. Can’t believe it’s been three years!

I expect to be posting here during the off season, as there will be the inevitable melodrama, speculation, and other craziness, but I’m guessing a short break will do a body good. So we won’t have to wait ’til next year to solve the myriad problems of the baseball universe, thanks to 24-hour sports news and the Internet, but we will have to wait ’til then for more Dodger baseball.

See ya!

Thanks to Larry Harnisch of the LA Times and The Daily Mirror blog for hosting lunch this afternoon at the always-tasty Philippe’s restaurant. We had a great time talking Los Angeles history, including our various theories on the true origins of the French Dip sandwich.

Also there and very entertaining was Ed Fuentes, Arts & Culture Editor at Blog Downtown, who writes view from a loft as well.

I’ll look forward to seeing you all again next time.

And thanks to Alex of Ravens in Hollywood for the lift.